by Tara Kennon, HSC communications manager
“When we created this recipe, we never dreamed that we would be able to share it with so many people,” said Rafael Ruiz, a Chicago high school student whose team developed the winning school lunch in HSC’s Cooking up Change healthy cooking contest: a tasty meal of stuffed green peppers, carrot quesadillas, and fresh refrescante salad.
On Tuesday May 5, more than 40,000 students across the US ate the healthy lunch in their school cafeterias; Congressional leaders and their staffers enjoyed the meal in the House of Representatives cafeteria; and at the same time, Ruiz and his teammates Alvaro Aguilar, Marquice Kent, Mike Martinez, Emmanuel Sandoval and Jose Tena prepared the lunch with White House chef Sam Kass at an HSC briefing on the future of school food.
Kass, a longtime advocate for healthy food, worked side by side with the high school culinary students to prepare the refrescante fruit salsa salad while HSC founding executive director Rochelle Davis, CPS food service director Louise Esaian, Illinois State Board of Education chair Jesse Ruiz and high school student Rafael Ruiz addressed the need for increased funding to make this type of healthy meal a daily reality in our nation’s schools.
The student chefs presented Kass with a Cooking up Change chef jacket like the ones they wore to the event – along with jackets for the President and First Lady. (Kass signed the students’ chef jackets and asked them to all sign his.) Kass talked with the students about cooking, culinary careers, and healthy food; the day before, he took them on a tour of the White House kitchen and the new White House garden that he helped Michelle Obama plant.
The tasty lunch and talented student chefs brought some great media attention to the movement for healthy school food: The Washington Post and CNN posted stories, and the Obama Foodorama blog covered the event with great detail and lots of photos.
We’re thrilled with the excitement of this wonderful event and so proud of the student chefs whose work is an inspiration to everyone who cares about getting good food in schools. Now, we hope to bring the excitement of this event to advocacy for healthy school meals.
This message is especially important in the weeks and months ahead as Congress begins to consider the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which essentially determines school food policy and resources.
More than 30 million children eat lunch at school every day and many kids who rely on the National School Lunch Program – those who are at risk of hunger, qualifying for free or reduced-price meals – are also facing skyrocketing rates of obesity and related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.
Please join HSC in speaking up for a robust and adequately funded Child Nutrition Act. Click here to take action.
And stay posted for more photos and video of the student chefs in DC!
Student Chefs Ruiz, Alvaro Aguilar, Marquice Kent, Mike Martinez, Emmanuel Sandoval and Jose Tena , we are so very proud of you. Truly you "represented" in a way that speakd volumes to us all. I tasted the lunch you created weeks ago at an executive board meeting and thought it was the best school lunch I had ever had. Actually it tasted better then food I have eaten in some restaurants. You are a timely inspiration and it is my hope and expectation that you eill keep up the good work. Many Blessings. Phyllis Pelt, HSC Board Member
Posted by: Phyllis Pelt | May 08, 2009 at 09:05 AM
Oops - please excuse mis spelled words - speakd should be speaks and eill should be will. Sorry. Phyllis Pelt
Posted by: Phyllis Pelt | May 08, 2009 at 09:06 AM
It's a threat to our society that obesity is increasing within the children due to the consumption of junk foods. This is a great move by the Chicago high school student. I appreciate this effort from the bottom of my heart and believe that other schools should also come up with new and innovative ideas to prevent obesity among the children.
Posted by: Eat Smart Age Smart | June 10, 2009 at 01:02 AM